This article inquires into the way "child abuse" has been constructed as a social problem in Argentina. The papers explores how the issue was first approached in the 1970s by a pediatric community influenced by psychoanalysis and subsequently divulged more broadly, until it became an endeavour in the hands of judicial actors that was destined to transform the way of dealing with the problem. For that purpose, the article is based on an analysis of early studies on the topic and interviews of judicial actors. These analyses suggest that the normative transformations that took place led to the removal of the "abused child" from the criminal environment, as the promoters had proposed, and also made it possible to broaden the spectrum of what could be denounced and, therefore, of what could be treated and controlled.